A Lapidot Fanfic: Locket
by lilmelchernping
Summary: After a snowstorm in Beach City, Steven decides to check on the two barn-mates Lapis and Peridot. On the way, he uncovers a locket in the snow...
1. Chapter 1: Hidden In The Snow

Steven was on the way to the barn, trudging through the two-feet-deep white snow.

"Oh, snow," Steven sighed, his breath coming out in a white cloud. "So cold..." In his mittened hand was a box of chocolate chip cookies, warm and fresh from the oven, baked by Amethyst and him.

Thank goodness Amethyst had saved some cookies; almost half the batch of cookies were gone.

"I hope they're alright," Steven said to himself, as he pushed through the snow. A snowstorm had hit Beach City earlier, and it was the first of the season. Steven wanted to check on the two barn mate gems, since it was their first time experiencing a snowstorm.

He remembered how Peridot had reacted the first time she encountered a thunderstorm. Peridot had finally decided to come out of her refuge of a bathroom when the other Crystal Gems were away on a mission, leaving Steven behind. She was scared at first, mistaking it to be the awakening of the Cluster, till Steven assured her it was only thunder.

"Huh?"

Something glinted in the snow, on the right, catching his eye. Steven ploughed through the snow as quickly as he could, curious. He scooped up a handful of snow with the object in it. A bit of snow fell from the gaps between his fingers. It seemed to be a ... necklace? _Whose is this?_ thought Steven, his eyebrows furrowed in thought. The chain looked rusted and discolored, probably old, and there was a round shaped locket hanging from the chain, it's chrome-colored cover patchy with red-brown rust. Steven could make out the pattern embossed on the cover - entwining branches and a swallow perched in the middle.

 _It's beautiful_ , thought Steven, and he attempted to open it. There was a small button on top, which Steven tried to press down to open the locket.

 _Huh?_ It didn't work. Steven tried again, pressing harder. The button seemed to be stuck.

"I'd better keep it, for safe-keeping," he said to himself, pocketing the locket in his jacket as he continued walking.

As soon as the barn appeared in sight, Steven heard someone yell his name from afar.

"Steven! Steven! STEVEN!"

"What..."

Steven squinted at a small green figure bounding from the barn towards him. "Peridot?"

"STEEEVVVVEEEEEN!" she cried, waving her arms frantically. "Steven, Steven, Steven!"

"Whoa, Peridot! Slow down!" Steven shouted, putting his arms in front of him.

"Warghhh!"

Peridot tripped. She tumbled. "Peridot!" Steven yelled. He tried to catch her, but Peridot landed on him instead. "Oof!"

Peridot rolled off Steven's back on her knees. She sat on the snow and ran her fingers through her triangular do, combing out the bits of snowflake. "Sorry, Steven."

"It's okay, Peridot," Steven replied, smiling; thankful that Peridot hadn't hurt herself. He rolled on his back and sat up, facing Peridot. "What happened?"

An enthusiastic excited expression appeared on Peridot's green face. "You will not believe it!" Peridot squealed, throwing her arms in the air. "Your planet Earth has not only thunderstorms, but it also has _frozen_ thunderstorms! A-MAZING!" Peridot scooped up some snow in her hands and threw it into the air, some falling into her hair and Steven's faded red beanie.

"Yeah." Steven nodded his head. "You see, it's called a snowstorm."

" _Snow..._ storm?" Peridot raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Yeah. They happen during winter instead of thunderstorms," he explained.

"Winter?"

"It's one of the four seasons we have on Earth," Steven said, getting up from the snow. He reached his hand out to Peridot, but she got up on her feet already.

"Where's Lapis?" Steven asked, noticing Lapis wasn't outside lounging on the truck attached to the front of the barn.

"Lapis?" echoed Peridot.

"Yeah."

"Oh..." Peridot began. "She's going through some stuff in the barn. She's probably going to build more 'meepmorps'. Hey, why don't you come in?"

"Sure." Steven followed behind Peridot into the barn.

"Lapis?" called Peridot. "LAPIS!?"

The entire barn was upside-down, inside-out. Boxes of random junk were tipped on their sides with their insides strewn all over the floor.

"Whoa... what happened here?" Steven exclaimed.

"Oh, Lapis!" yelled Peridot.

Several pieces and parts of dismantled contraptions were on the ground, smashed and broken, like they had been thrown and tossed on to the ground carelessly. Steven noticed the broken shards of a light bulb glittering amongst the junk.

"Lapis!" called Peridot again. "Are you okay?"

There was no answer.

"Steven's come over!" she called again. A thump from one of the corners of the barn was all that was heard. Then a crash of metal was heard.

"Steven?"


	2. Chapter 2: Hidden In The Corner

"Steven's come over!"

 _Peridot?!_

Lapis's heart almost stopped. Her hands stopped in mid-air, holding an open box full of little gears. She froze in the corner of the barn. _Oh, no! No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!_

She needed to say something, or else the two would start looking around for her - and they might-

"Steven?"

"Lapis?" She heard Steven's voice call again. "We're coming for you!"

 _Oh, no, don't!_ Lapis put the box back down where it came from. Her heart was beating brutally fast inside. "Steven, no! It's okay! I'm coming out!"

Lapis rushed out from her corner, almost tripping over a box she had dug into. "Whoa! Steven! You're here!" she exclaimed, tiptoeing over the boxes and strewn junk.

"Hey, Lapis," Steven waved. Lapis hugged Steven tightly. "Uh, Lapis? I can't... uh... breathe?"

"Oh, WHOOPS!" She let go of Steven. "Sorry." Nerves.

"Nah, it's fine." Steven smiled. "Oh, yeah! I got cookies for you guys! Amethyst and I just baked em'."

"Wow, Steven!" Peridot took the box of cookies from Steven's hand. "We could sure use these... _cookies_!"

"Use?" Steven echoed. "What do you mean _use_?"

"I mean," Peridot began, "for what else? We can build stuff from these _cookies_ , am I right, Lapis?"

Lapis, whose mind drifting away from the conversation, was startled. "Huh? Uh, yeah, right, whatever..."

Lapis looked away, but noticed the two were staring at her. "Uh, what?"

Steven scratched his head. "You okay, Lapis?"

 _Shoot_. "Um, yeah, I'm fine," Lapis said. "Why?"

Steven seemed worried. "You seemed... bothered."

 _Oh, Steven._ "Nah, Steven. I'm fine, really."

Steven looked at her weird. "Um, okay." And he shrugged, back to his old smile. "So, I brought these cookies for you guys to try out. I know Gems don't need to eat, but since you're here on Earth, I thought at least you needed to try some..."

Steven and Peridot's voices blurred. Lapis looked out of the barn, through the big gaping square threshold. Snow, snow, snow was all she could see. _Where..._

 _Could it be... outside?_

"Hey, Lapis! You should try this!"

 _Lapis! You did it again! Ugh!_

Her head snapped back, facing Peridot who was holding a cookie out to her. "Oh, uh, thanks," she said. She gave a little smile to Peridot, but she had looked away, talking animatedly with Steven about how delicious the cookies were.

 _Oh, Peridot..._

She looked at the cookie in her hand. It was already bitten - by Peridot.

 _Peridot bit it. Peridot bit it!_

Then, she bit the cookie where Peridot had bitten it. It tasted like nothing she had ever had in her entire life - well, she had never eaten anything in her entire life, being a Gem. It melted in her mouth, an explosion of sweetness; she closed her eyes in ecstasy...

"Mm..."

"What do you think, Lapis?" Peridot asked, her eyes sparkling with in earnest. Lapis opened her eyes and looked at Peridot. _She looks so cute... KEEP CALM._

"Hmm... yeah. Pretty good." Lapis swallowed the cookie and smiled at Peridot. But she had looked away. Again.

 _Why won't you keep looking at me..._

Her shoulders drooped a little. She exhaled a long, deep sigh.

 _What am I doing? Shoot!_

"Steven! Peridot!" she called. "I've got to go somewhere."

"Huh?" Peridot asked. "Where?"

But Lapis had already sped out barn with her water wings spread. "I'll be right back!"

And she flew away into the wintry white air.


	3. Chapter 3: Hidden Beneath The Tree

"Oh, it has to be around here somewhere..."

A blue blur streaked the wintry sky, her wings flapping against the frigidity. Her eyes scanned the entire farm from above: not on the barn roof, not on top of the silo, not in the snow... where could it be?

"I can't believe," she groaned frustratedly, "that I didn't notice. Why, why, why, why, why?! Aghhh!"

The coolness of the air whipped against Lapis's anxious face as she circled the farm for the tenth time. She was determined, but it could've been gone for good - she might've have even lost it a week ago...

 _No, I just clasped it on three days ago..._

She stopped mid air. Her hands flew to her face. "Why're you still looking for it? It's just a stupid locket! You can get another one! Urrrrghhhh!"

 _But..._

Three days ago...

"Peridot! I'm going out for a while!" Lapis called out as she walked towards the gaping mouth of the barn. Peridot was lying on the hammock. She looked up from the joke book she was reading and nodded. "Yeah, okay." her eyes returned to the page.

Lapis's heart sank a little. Couldn't Peridot have said, maybe, "Have fun!" or a "Have a safe flight!" or... "I'll miss you"?

Nah. "I'll miss you" is a little too much.

 _Maybe Peridot does care._ Lapis walked outside. _Maybe in her own way_.

 _But she could've just waved good-bye, right?_

 _It would've been a lot better._

Lapis sighed. Her breath came out in white puffs. She waved them away, limply.

 _But she does care, right? About me? I mean... at least she looked up from her book..._

Wings of water spouted from her blue back, with sprays of water crystallizing into slivers of ice. Her gemstone shone in the light of the snow-white sky. It seemed the entire world in Lapis's eyes was painted white, white white - save for the old, faded red barn. In one magnificent swoop of her clear blue wings, she was a mile up high, a blue bob-haired blob against a canvas-white sky.

It has been a while since Lapis last flew. The last time she did... it was when she tried to save Steven from Jasper. Steven had brought her to sail on a boat with his father, Greg, who was teaching Lapis how to fish. Jasper had caught the line of her rod and tried to pull her into the ocean, but eventually she climbed onboard and tried convince Lapis to fuse with her.

 _... I don't want to..._

She remembered Jasper trying to hurt Steven. The frigid air stung her skin, but not as much as the memory did.

She had punched Jasper away - somewhere far, far away. She had accidentally punched a hole into the boat and... that's when she flew away to safety, grabbing Greg and Steven.

 _CRASH!_

"Whoa!"

Lapis had been so carried away by the memory, she flew descending towards a tree.

"Umph!" She tried to get her arms and legs free from the black-brown branches. Once she was unstuck, she leaped from the tree onto the snow. It crunched beneath her feet, with the twigs that fell from the tree when she was trying to free herself. She sighed. "Clumsy."

As she was about the walk away, a glint in the snow before her caught her eye.

"What's this..." She scooped the snow where the glint was was. She brushed the snow off.

"A locket?"

She looked around. There seemed to be nobody around, anybody whom the locket seemed to belong to. Anyway, the locket could've been in the snow for, who knows how long?

She slid her thumb over the locket in her palm. She felt the bumps of the bird embossed on the locket. The chains rattled as she clasped it around her neck.

 _Beautiful..._


	4. Chapter 4: Hidden In The Pocket

"Why're you still looking for it? It's just a stupid locket! You can get another one! Urrrrghhhh!" Lapis groaned in frustration.

 _But..._

Then, she halted all thought. One big thought pushed into her mind. _Had Peridot found the locket?!_

"Oh, no, oh, no, oh, no, oh, no..." she muttered, as she flew back to the barn. _It can't be..._

She landed by the pool Peridot and Steven had made for her, which was frozen gray.

 _Steven? Peridot?_

She couldn't hear anything coming from inside the barn. Had Steven and Peridot gone somewhere else?

 _But I didn't see them come out..._

Lapis tip-toed on the snow, as quietly as she could, leaving soft snow-crunching sounds beneath her toes. She peeked her head into barn. It was dark in the barn. The mess she made was cleaned up; sharp points and pointy shards jutted out the boxes among the junk piled in them. The boxes were arranged neatly next to each other in a corner. Then, she heard the sound of...

 _Camp Pining Hearts?_

It seemed to come from one of the upper lofts of the barn. She looked up.

 _It sounds like a new episode..._

Then, she heard Peridot laugh. _Peridot?_

She stepped inside the barn. Her heart was thumping. Did Peridot have it? Oh, no... is that why she's laughing? Has she already seen it? Lapis was going to be so embarrassed... they'd know about it... and... and... and...

 _Come on. You can do this._

Lapis took a deep breath.

 _Just ask them if they've seen a locket._

Lapis exhaled with determination.

 _And say that you're helping whoever's lost it._

"Lapis?"

Lapis turned her head up. Peridot and Steven were peering over the edge of the loft at her. "Lapis! You're back!" Steven shouted. "Hurry up, Lapis! It's so good!" Peridot squealed. Lapis just stood there. She felt relieved. _Whew_...

"Yeah, I'm coming up. In a sec."

She climbed up a ladder, leaning against the wall. She found Steven and Peridot leaned against one end of the loft, concentrated on Peridot's tablet. Steven was leaning against Peridot, shoulder to shoulder. Lapis found herself looking at Peridot.

 _She's... adorable when she looks like that._

"Lapis, what're you waiting for? We're waiting for you!" Peridot waved Lapis over to sit next to her. "Um, yeah," replied Lapis, as she crawled over to sit next to the little green Gem.

She tried to concentrate on the episode, or at least tried to keep her eyes on the tablet, but she just - couldn't. _Peridot..._

She tried to keep her eyes off Peridot. _But she's so cute..._

 _Keep it together! Just watch the darn episode!_

Peridot was cute, in a way that she was curious about Earth. How she loved the Earth and all the things on it that fascinated her. How her face lights up brighter than the stars that surround Homeworld when she discovers something new... How she adapted to the ever-changing Earth... But Lapis...

 _Why would she ever look at you the way you look at her?_

There was a pang in her chest. _Why...?_

She tried to concentrate on characters on the screen.

 _You still can't get used to the Earth like her._

She tried to focus on what Percy was saying.

 _Do you even make her happy like how the Earth does?_

She tried to hold it in.

 _Why do you even bother to keep having these... feelings for her!?_

"Aww, it's over? Already!?" Peridot sighed. "But, but... Percy... and Pierre... WHAAAT?"

"It's okay, Peridot." Steven put a hand on her shoulder. "I'll let you know when the next episode's released, 'kay?"

Peridot eased. She sighed. "Alright. Hey, Lapis, what do you think? Lapis?"

Lapis just sat there, among her scattered thoughts. _Why, why, why, why, why?_

"Lapis?" Peridot asked. "Are you okay?" She looked so concerned.

 _Just ask for the darn locket and go._

"Yeah," Lapis answered and blinked her eyes, her hand wiping any tears that might've been there. "I'm fine. Hey."

"Yeah?" Peridot and Steven looked at her.

"I lost a locket. Have you guys seen any around?"

"Oh, you mean..." Steven stuck his hand into his jacket and pulled something out, followed by a long chain. "...this one?" He reached his hand out to Lapis. "Is it this one?"

"Yes! Oh, thank you, Steven!" Lapis had never felt so relieved and happy. She took the locket into her pale blue hand and held it to her chest. "Thank you, Steven."

 _Thank goodness, Peridot hadn't found it._

"But," Steven began, "the button on the locket is kinda stuck."

 _Oh. Shoot._

"What's that?" asked Peridot, leaning against Lapis to get a closer look. "I wanna see!"

But Lapis had pulled away. "Aww, come one, Lapis! Please?!" cried Peridot, with that...

 _...she's cute when she's annoyed._

Lapis couldn't help but giggle a little. "Hey!" Peridot yelled, trying to take the locket from Lapis's hand. "Please?!"

Lapis laughed, so hard she wasn't aware that- "Whoa!" She fell off the loft.

"Lapis!" Steven and Peridot cried.

Steven jumped off the edge, floating down towards the creaky barn floor, where Lapis was still laughing. Peridot frantically scaled the ladder down, and ran towards Lapis.

"Lapis, are you okay?" Peridot asked, checking to see if Lapis was hurt.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good," Lapis answered, her laughter ceasing. When she turned to look at Peridot, she was smiling at her. She noticed something.

 _She finally smiled at me. She has..._

 _...a beautiful smile._

Lapis smiled back at Peridot. She felt a small blue blush bloom on her face and looked away.

 _Peridot..._


	5. Chapter 5: Hidden In The Heart

The entire barn was dark, save for the moonlight that filtered through the cracks in the roof and in between the wall boards. Lapis could hear Peridot breathing softly in the hammock below from the loft. She sighed and leaned back against the wall - the same wall where they had watched Camp Pining Hearts today, the same spot where Peridot sat.

In her hand, she turned the locket around and around absent-mindedly, with the chain dangling between her fingers.

 _Close call today, huh…_

Lapis sighed again, sagging further down the wall. She remembered Steven's words. Was the button really stuck?

She pushed the button down. The locket clicked and the cover swung open.

 _Phew._

Of course, Lapis would be strong enough to push the button down all the way. Steven may be a Gem, but he's part human too.

Within the frame of the locket, was a picture of-

 _Oh, Peridot…_

Her deep blue eyes settled on Peridot's face adoringly. On the glass, where a picture was meant to be slipped inside, was Peridot frosted on its scratched surface.

 _She smiled at me… yes…_

Lapis smiled, but her smile faded away as soon as it appeared. _Why am I so difficult…_

She remembered when she had refused to stay together with Peridot in the barn.

 _Why…_

She remembered when Peridot had tried to make peace with her.

 _Why…_

She remembered when she had crushed Peridot's tape recorder.

 _Why am I like this?_

She remembered when Peridot gave her the pool.

 _Why am I difficult…_

 _Why can't I just be like you?_

 _You never gave up on me. You kept trying… Peridot…_

Tears were stinging her eyes. She snapped the locket shut and held it tightly in her hand.

 _I gave up on you. No, I didn't even try to understand you… All I did was push you away._

She pulled her knees together, towards her chest.

 _I was so mean to you, but you kept trying… You wanted… me to be happy…?_

Peridot wanted her to be happy. She had tried to give Lapis anything to make her happy. A letter, a tape recorder, a pool… it was all for Lapis.

 _Oh, Peridot… sniff…_

 _Why was I so mean to you…?_

Her hand clammed, closing the locket with a click.


End file.
